


Vulnera Sanentur

by Honeydukes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/F, Gen, Hermione centric, Multi, Post Battle of Hogwarts, Recovery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-23 20:27:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2554520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honeydukes/pseuds/Honeydukes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*This Piece is for NaNoWriMo so will be long and regularly updated, I hope!*</p><p>This story is set after the battle of Hogwarts and follows Hermione, Ginny and Luna as they return to Hogwarts to complete their last year of education and decide what they want to do with their lives, whilst beginning to recover from the trauma they experienced over the last year. Later the story will feature my otp Luna and Cho when Cho becomes assistant to Madam Hooch in order to replace her when she retires. </p><p>Also this is my first story on here so any support would be super appreciated, as I'm sure I'll need a lot of motivation to manage NaNo this year! </p><p>Much love, Gracie xxxxxxxxxxx</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hermione

Hermione

Hermione knew that she shouldn’t be feeling as nervous as she was, they were only her parents after all. But she had never expected to live long enough to see them again. She had begun to think of them solely as the Wilkins, as this soothed her guilt at what she had done to her own family. They were happy, they would never know that for eighteen years they raised a daughter who had wiped herself from their memories before being wiped herself from the world.

Hermione walked down the cool streets of Melbourne, the piece of parchment held tightly in her hand although she had looked at it enough to have memorised the address.

“23, 25” she murmured counting the house numbers.

“27” stopping in front of a large two story house.

She checked her parchment for the hundredth time. Yes this was the place. Hermione straightened her skirt and smoothed her blouse, she wondered what their first impression of her would be but decidedly told herself that it didn’t matter what these people thought of her as her parent loved her unconditionally and she was her for her parents. Not the Wilkins.

After another minute or so Hermione heard someone leave the house behind her and realised that she could not just stand in front of the house in definitely so she had to pluck up all her courage and ring the doorbell.

‘You can do this’ Hermione thought ‘You defeated Voldemort, reversing a memory charm on two middle aged muggles is not exactly the challenge of the century’  
Hermione almost smiled as she rang the doorbell, she hadn’t made a joke in a long time.

The door was opened alarmingly fast and threw her completely off guard. Her dad was long and lanky and somewhat greyer than when she had seen him last, he gave her a warm smile when he say her and said

“G’day” in a strange accent, as though the ten months had created a hybrid of his London school boy accent and an Australian one.

Hermione faltered, the one hand gripping her wand in her skirt pocket seemed frozen. She had planned on removing her obliviate instantly but her body didn’t seem to want to obey her command. She hadn’t realised just how much she had missed him.

“Hello” she said, her voice catching. She cleared her throat and stood up straighter.

‘I am not scared of my own dad’ she thought to herself angrily.

“My name is Penelope Clearwater, and I work for the British Embassy” She lied confidently, holding out her hand. He shook it firmly

“I am indeed, nice to meet you” he said with a confident grin, so unlike her introverted quiet father. “So what do I owe the occasion?” he asked.

Hermione had been thinking fast and was able to answer believably, “I wanted to ask you a few questions about the immigration process and how you feel it could be improved. We have recently started a system of visiting new British immigrants to the country to ensure that they are settling in. Do you have time to answer a few questions.”

“Yes that would be grand, please, come in.”

Hermione followed him through the house. It was much bigger than their house in Cambridge. It was beautiful too and had an endearing cosiness due to the love and attention to detail. At home they favoured a minimalistic design as Mr Granger could not concentrate around clutter, and Mrs Granger found bright colours and lavish decorations to be tasteless, but this was completely opposite. Her dad led her to a generous sized living room and invited her to sit down, she perched awkwardly on the edge of the settee. They even had a swimming pool, Hermione noticed.

“So what did you want to ask?” He asked her, leaning back against the plush cushions behind him.

Hermione was glad that she had her notebook and a pen (thankfully not a quill!) with her and she pulled them out of her purse.

“How long have you been here?” she asked

“Ten glorious months,” he replied “we arrived here August 1st last year”

“And how have you found it so far?”

“Ah we just love it, we’ve been dreaming of it for so many years now. It is everything that we could have ever dreamed off.”

“And do you miss England at all?” Hermione asked, for a moment she forgot herself and felt just a little girl again.

“No not at all” he chuckled, not noticing Hermione’s voice catching “There wasn’t anything there for us you know, we don’t have any close family and neither of us were feeling fulfilled career wise so moving here has just given us the chance to rebuild our lives. And I don’t regret anything, truly I don’t.”

“Is your wife around?” Hermione asked, pulling herself back into character.

“Yeah, she just having a nap I think, I’ll call her.” He got up and walked to the foot of the stairs.

“Mon, love?” he called “Are you awake? We’ve got a visitor”

Hermione heard the creak of footsteps above her as her dad came back and plonked himself down opposite her.

“I think she’ll be down in a second, what else did you want to know?”

“I wanted to ask about the process of immigrating” Hermione asked, distractedly. She wanted to see her mother’s face so much that it pained her.

“You know what, I really don’t remember most of it!” He laughed “Probably blocked out all of the bloody paper work from my memory! Ah, here’s my girls” he added smiling at someone behind Hermione.

“Hello love” said a soft voice, Hermione turned around, her throat had become very tight and tears were beginning to cloud her vision.

Behind her stood her mother, but in an instant Hermione’s joy was transformed to shock. In the arms of Jean Granger was a tiny, sleeping baby.

Her mother walked passed her giving her a warm smile and sat down next to her father, cradling the baby in her arms.

“Penelope here, is giving an interview for the embassy” He explained, reaching to take the baby from her arms and into his. The infant gave a little gurgle but did not wake.

“How nice!” said her mother “I’m Monica” She reached over to shake Hermione’s hand. Hermione extended it slowly and numbly. She couldn’t think straight. She was so disorientated. What was going on?

“Australia has treated us perfectly!” Her mother replied “It feels so right, as though our lives have finally begun, though we really have to thank our little princess for that!”

“Yes” replied her husband. “We must have been expecting before we even left the country but didn’t realise” Her parent’s looked at each other with such utter devotion that Hermione had never seen before.

“A miracle, our miracle” Her mother reached down and stroked the baby’s plump cheek.

“What is her name?” Hermione heard herself say. Her voice didn’t sound her own.

Her father grinned at her “Ready yourself! It’s a weird one!”

Her mother shoved him playfully.

“It isn’t weird, it’s beautiful!” she turned back to face her, her voice was deep with love when she said, “Her name is Hermione.”


	2. After the battle

3 weeks earlier

Harry, Ron and Hermione stood together in silence for less than hour although it felt like an eternity. They were different people than they were the day before, how could they not be? 

It was Charlie Weasley that broke their trance, he walked over to Ron and put his thick arm around his brother's skinny shoulders.  
"Mum" he said simply and then led his brother away from them. Charlie nodded at Hermione and Harry before turning away. They understood, it was time for family.

"We should go and help" Hermione whispered. She looked at Harry and noticed that he was crying, she wondered how long he had been.

Harry nodded and smiled at her and they began to walk back towards the castle. Harry did not try to his tears, he was too wise now to care about pride. Hermione wondered why she wasn't crying herself, she had never been particularly stoic. She tried to assess her emotions as she walked with her best friend through the broken remnants of her home. She felt neither grief at her friends' death nor joy at their triumph. She felt numb.

They walked into the great hall but did not approach the Weasleys, who were huddled together around Fred's body.

"Fred" Harry said, his voice cracking. Hermione pulled him into a hug that lasted over a minute. They stood and watched Madam Pomfrey strode from group to group with a sense of maternal power that calmed even the most hysterical of her patients.

"Please, how can I help?" Hermione asked her.

Madam Pomfrey stopped, slightly surprised to be broken out of her trance. She looked at them both for a moment without saying anything but her eyes spoke sonnets.

"Darlings" she said taking their faces, on at a time, between her soft leathery hands and kissing them on the cheek.

"Please, talk to the young ones, console them, distract them. It's their minds more than their bodies which need healing right now." She turned away with a swish of her robes and strode towards the next bloodied limb that her eagle eyes had spotted.

Hermione look around, they all looked young she thought. She walked towards a boy in ravenclaw robes that she did not recognise. He was sat alone staring into space.

"What's your name?" She asked him.

He turned to her slowly. "Martin" he said

Hermione looked at him, he was probably about 15, not that much younger than herself, but far too young to have witnessed this.

"It's going to be okay" Hermione said, "it's going to be okay" she put her hand on his. "It's over now, it's just a memory" but she didn't believe it herself.

McGonagall had set up a one way floo network so that she could send people safely back to their homes but to prevent anyone from entering the castle. Once they had emptied the school of the living, then she would allow for families to come and claim their dead. They started with the patients that Madam Pomfrey could not cure on the spot. The hospital wing had been completely destroyed so she and McGonagall decided which people needed to be flooed straight to St Mungos, fortunately there were few ailments that Poppy Pomfrey could not cure and it did not take long before there were no invalids left in the school. 

Next they set to work sending off everyone else, they used only one fireplace which made the process slower but gave the professors a chance to speak to everyone and ascertain they had somewhere to go to. The process was arduous, especially as many volunteered to stay and help. But McGonagall would hear nothing of it and insisted that everyone went to their loved ones.   
“We can handle it” She said firmly, but placed a reassuring hand on the shoulder of the young man before gently pushing him into the green flames. The families and friends already grieving around their dead were left in peace.   
Hermione sat watching the two women work. She wasn’t sure where Harry was, he and Ginny had walked out of the doors some time ago. She saw a shadow lean over her and then felt a small body slide delicately to the floor at her side. She did not need to look to know that it was Luna Lovegood who had come upon her gust of cold air. Refreshing. Awakening. Luna put her arm around Hermione’s shoulder and leant her head against hers. The intimacy seemed to pull Hermione back into herself and for the first time in months she felt secure. They sat there, surrounded by the dead and grieving. But Luna was a patronus and kept the darkness from stealing her strength.  
Luna was the epitome of hope, Hermione realised. She was so very different to herself. Hermione favoured logic and wisdom and all things real, but Luna’s dottiness, which she had so easily dismissed, was her pure, undeterable faith. And right now she was the beacon of light that Hermione had never thought she would have needed.


	3. Platform 9 3/4

Platform 9 3/4

Ginny thought that if her mother held her arm any tighter it would break off as Mrs Weasley led them both through the brick wall separating platforms 9 and 10. Though she appreciated it, since the battle she had become closer to her mother than ever before and the prospect of leaving until Christmas made her anxious, though for herself or her mum? she wasn't sure. Last year she had walked through the barrier with Tonks and Kingsley on either side to protect her if they were needed before the safety of the train. Although it had not felt as though going to Hogwarts was the place of safety that she knew it as, with Dumbledore gone and replaced by Snape, and attendance now obligatory it had felt as though she was walking willingly into a trap.But it was safe now, she kept reminding herself. The Wizarding World was the safest it had been for fifty years, so why was she even more scared of going back to school than she was last year.

On the other side of the barrier they had a short and sweet goodbye, as neither were into making a scene, Mrs Weasley kissed her daughter and gave her a quick squeeze.

"Have a lovely year my darling" she said. 

"Bye mum" Ginny replied. Before climbing aboard the scarlet steam engine. By the time she had settled herself in an empty compartment Mrs Weasley had gone. 

After a few minutes a familiar face glided past her in the corridor. Ginny leaped to feet, grinning.

"Luna, here!" she called. Luna Lovegood turned on the spot and beamed at her.

"Hello Ginny" she said, Ginny pulled her into a massive hug that seemed to take Luna quite by surprise.

"I've missed you so much!" she said, feeling a lump in her throat. 

They broke apart and went to sit down. Luna looked too thin, Ginny wondered, but she looked a lot better than she had done at the battle.

Despite her traumatic ordeal at the hands of the death eaters Luna seemed the same as before. She was truly wonderful, Ginny thought, how could I have ever been so cruel as to mock Luna Lovegood. 

"How are you?" Ginny asked her

"I am perfect" Luna replied sincerely "but I am lucky, I am so sorry Ginny"

"It's okay" said Ginny, and she meant it. Well it wasn't okay but they would be, and right now they had to start rebuilding there lives. Even without...

She gulped. She was distracted by the door sliding open.

"Hermione!" she squealed, she hadn't realised how much she had missed her. "Ginny!" Hermione gave her a one armed hug, the other was too busy holding Crookshanks, who was looking fatter than ever after a year with Mrs Weasley to feed him. Luna stood up and took the cat from her arms.

"Hi Luna!" Hermione smiled, putting her freed arm around her shoulders and pulling her into the three way hug. 

They all sat down, Ginny hoped that no one else would join them, she wanted it to be just them for a while.

"How lovely that we'll all be in the same year" Luna said simply.

"Yes" Ginny agreed, "How was Australia Hermione?"

"It was...complicated" Hermione said, stiffing. Ginny did not press her. 

"It feels so strange" Hermione continued, turning away from them to look out of the window "It's as though nothing has changed, yet everything has"

They sat in silence whilst the train started to pull out of the station.

"How is the Quibbler going Luna" Ginny asked, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Very well thank you" Luna replied "It took a while for daddy to get his office back together after the Death Eaters destroyed all the equipment but I think people were really eager to start reading it again. It was very nice of Hagrid to give the interview about phoenixes for it, the readers seemed tor really like it."

"Yes," Hermione agreed "Phoenixes are very symbolic afterall, and I think it was a nice change from the vulgar way that Witch Weekly wrote about the battle. 

Ginny looked at her "I didn't see it, what did it say?"

"Oh it was honest enough, but it just made it so...so..overdramatic? no it was dramatic anyway" Hermione looked at Ginny "That's it! Even though what actually happened was bad in the first place, they had to spin out to make it read like a thriller novel. Just to sell more copies of their vile scrap of parchment."

Ginny looked down at her lap "Yes I can imagine that" she sighed "Maybe I just hoped that they would have a bit more respect, though with Rita Skeeter writing I suppose I knew it would be bad"

"At least we are smart enough not to touch that trash" Hermione said decisively "We are Quibbler readers through and through!" Smiling at Luna. 

After an hour there was a knock on the door. They turned to see the trolley lady beaming in at them. 

"Anything off the trolley dears?" she asked through the open window of the compartment door.

"Oh yes!" said Luna pulling the door open. She fished out a handful of silver sickles and bought a huge pile of cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts every flavour beans.

"Blimey Luna!" Ginny remarked "You sure are hungry!"

"It's very lovely to be able to eat sweets again" said Luna, but said no more about her imprisonment. "Please help me?" she said gesturing awkwardly at the pile of food."

Ginny was always touched by how greatly Luna valued having them as friends. She passed a Cake to Hermione.

"Goodness, it does feel strange to be able to do this again" Hermione said with a tired laugh. 

Luna was methodically inspecting each of her bertie botts every flavour beans before deciding which ones were safe to eat. Crookshanks had slunk round the compartment and was now lying across Hermione's lap, staring intently at her cauldron cake. He had developed quite a fondness for chocolate, due to Arthur's reluctance to deny him anything.

Yes, thought Ginny, it does feel strange to be doing all this again. She opened up her chocolate frog and took a mouthful. It is almost as though nothing has changed at all, she mused, chewing intently as she turned over the Witch or Wizard card. She spluttered and almost choked on her chocolate.

"What is it?" asked Hermione

Ginny swallowed her mouthful with difficulty, "It's Harry!" she said turning the card to show her friends. And sure enough on the front of the card, a slender young man with round glasses and lightening bolt scar smiled awkwardly at them.


	4. Going back to Hogwarts

The girls had changed into their school robes as the train pulled into hogsmeade station. 

"First Yer's this way" Hagrid's voice carried above the chatter of the students, climbing down onto the platform. 

"Should we go and say hello to him?" asked Luna

"Not right now" Hermione replied, "He has a job to do, so we ought to wait until the feast."

They were the last people of the train, choosing not to rush. They watched the smallest of the children huddle around Hagrid like ducklings. They then followed him towards the lake to take the traditional sail across the lake. 

"I sort of wish that I could join them" Ginny remarked. On an evening such as this where the stars reflected upon the still lake sparkled like silver.  
"It does feel like a new beginning, like I'm starting again rather than finishing my time here" She added.

Luna had gone on ahead and was softly petting the thestrals skeletal face. 

"I guess there won't be that many people who just see horseless carriages anymore" Hermione said hollowly.

Ginny said nothing but she thought Hermione had a point. A morbid one at that. They climbed into the last carriage and the thestral pulling it began to trot forward. 

"It is nice to be home again" said Luna cheerily. Her words brought a lump to Hermione's throat. She wondered it Luna ever realised how poignant her simple statements could be.

They all turned to watch as the castle became larger and larger. It was very dark but there were spots of light coming from various window, the houselves must have lit the fires.

They climbed down. There was a queue of students heading in through the entrance hall as they had all slowed down their eager strides to look at something. Eventually the crowd filed its way into the Great Hall and the girls walked through the door into the entrance hall. Against the wall a giant memorial had been constructed, the design was simple, it was a large rectangle of giant marble, with a lightening bolt subtley etched in the middle. The top of it read. The Battle of Hogwarts May 2nd 1998, and then the heading; 'To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.' 

There was then a long list of those who died during the fighting. Hermione spotted Fred's name and Lavender's and Tonk's and Remus's and Colin's and, so so many more. They stood in silence and looked at it for a few moments. Ginny wiped her eyes on the back of her robe. It wasn't until they heard the steps of Professor McGonagall, leading a group of a dozen eleven year olds down the stairs above them that they went through into the Great Hall. The Great Hall showed absolutely no signs of the damage it had endured, It looked no different to how it had been when Hermione entered it two years ago. Luna glided over to the Ravenclaw table.

"I keep forgetting that she's not in our house" Hermione said to Ginny as they walked to the Gryffindor table. There were many eyes upon them as they took their seats but they did not seem notice. They were both too preoccupied with watching Profesor McGonagall carry a ruggard old hat and a stool to the head of the hall, followed by a nervous trail of children. 

"Good evening students" she said to the hall, before turning back to her first years. She placed the hat upon the stool and stepped back. One of the children jumped as the hat gave a wiggle and then opened its mouth and beginning to sing.


End file.
